K U N V

Once upon a time there was an independent and ecclectic Las Vegas radio station with the call letters, KUNV, 91.5 on your FM dial. It was run by a really cool guy named Rob Rosenthal and a bunch of totally dedicated volunteers. KUNV played really fantastic music on a show called The Rock Avenue. So weekdays from 7 pm until 10 am you got to hear bands like Flipper, The Misfits, Big Black and Social Distortion along with bands even the DJ's had never heard of. But if they sounded good, they got airplay.

My first airshift was in January 1990, and after that I was completely hooked. Over the next 7 years I was on the air almost every week. For a while I had Mondays 6 to 10 am and later, Wednesdays 8 to10 pm. Everybody hung out together, it was like family.

Actually, before all of this happened there was a station that could only broadcast to the MSU building on the UNLV campus. It was referred to as KJON. That's because the studio was a modified men's room, located next to the MSU Ballroom on the second floor. When KUNV came into existence this room was used to store old stuff. Later on, due to space constrains on the third floor, it was cleaned out and made into an office for the Rock staff.

Then Bill Clinton, the President of the United States, came to speak at UNLV and the Secret Service guys found the old missile casing that had been used for an ashtray/doorstop for years and completely freaked out. They searched the whole office and made them take down all the posters and junk from the walls. Then they swept through the third floor, because KUNV's men's room was to become the official Presidential Toilet during Bill's visit. Any decorations here also had to be removed. It was very sad and I believe it heralded the beginning of the end of KUNV as we knew it.

I've been documenting the Las Vegas music scene for quite a while now, check out some of my old stuff for a musical trip down memory lane in the Spotlight Archives (covering June 1996 to August 1997).

January 29th, 1997 was my final day as a KUNV volunteer. It was fun while it lasted, but all good things must end. These are the ashes from which SinCitySounds.com (in all of it's numerous incarnations throughout the years) springs forth. It's still all about the music.